for Hip Hop & Education

March Film Review: The Get Down

If you haven’t watched “The Get Down” yet I suggest you get a friend with Netflix. “The Get Down” is an original series on Netflix from Baz Luhrmann and executive produced by Nasir Jones. The show chronicles a group of young kids living in the Bronx and subsequently discovering Hip Hop Culture. The series features a host of new faces with an appearance from Jaden Smith as an avid aerosol artist. Set in the late seventies the show’s main character, Zeke, is in love and finds out he is in love with emceeing as well. The seventies isn’t complete without the drugs and drama and Zeke gets into a little bit of everything with his crew after meeting Shaolin Fantastic or should I say DJ Shaolin Fantastic. Without giving too much away I suggest that you watch this series because you are already behind. This series is worth getting invested in and takes you on a ride!

This series is not suitable for the classroom but there are a few episodes that could but utilized in an academic environment. If you have older children than this is a great series that you can watch with them. You can educate them on a little Hip Hop history after DJ Grandmaster Flash makes his series debut. It’s not really him in the project but he was very hands on with Mamoudou Athie who plays Flash and Shameik Moore who plays Shaolin Fantastic. Nas was also very hands on with this project as he wrote the lyrics for the rhymes that the main character spits in the series. The show shines a light on the crooked politics that effected the poverty happening in the Bronx at the time. The economy at the time was nonexistent and landlords were burning down whole buildings just to collect the insurance money.

The series not only speak to how Hip Hop Culture was forming but it puts the audience in the Bronx with the characters on their adventures. The gang element that was prevalent that time could not be ignored and although none of the characters were associated with any gangs in the series the fact of the matter is that Hip Hop saved the lives of a lot of the young kids that were in gangs at the time. The series has only 6 episodes but you’ll be so into it you’re going to wish fir more. The show returns to Netflix on April 6th of this year and will feature at least 6 new episodes! I suggest you binge watch so you can be caught up when it returns!